The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-08-12

any dance ever saw at Saratoga or Long
Branch. They moved about as though they
meant it, and there was none of the david
ling, blase, walk-through-t -the-dance air that
you meet with in the east. These people here
are good, healthy Americans. They are inn
pregnated with the true spirit Of American
ism, and / have yet to see, thank fortune!
any Of the Anglo-American apes among
them. They are well educated and cultured,
and the mining society, as described by Mark
Twain, Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller, has
passed away. One equal to the best you will
ind anywhere has taken its place. 1t is the
same as the parlor society OF the world, that
of the richer classes, which does not vary
much either in countries or climes
#**
People enjoy themselves much the same
here as they do at other mountain places.
The children, and there is a big crop of them
here, ride about the mountain roads on little
donkeys called burros and crowd of ten of
them, aged about 6, 8 and 10 years, have just
cantered past my window. The rides on
horseback and in carriages are many and they
are wild and romantic in the extreme This
whole section of the Rockies is filled with
views which will rival those of Switzerland,
and great walls Of rocks rise straight up in
places hundreds Of feet. In others you go
through narrow gorges, where carriages can
not pass, and within a mile or SO is the won
derful formation known as the Garden of the
Gods. A trip to Pixies peak is often taken
by bota men and women as we'll. 1t is twelve
miles up to the top and you must either walk
or ride up on horseback, or rather mule back
1t takes full day, and the whole route is
wildly romantic. At the top you can see
Denver and Pueblo, one forty and the other
forty-five miles away. It is a very hard trip
At ID, 900 feet above the sea the rarefed air
has the effect Of making many people sea sick,
and night on the summit is impossible to
great number People are sometimes kept
here over night, and heavy blankets are re-
qnired to keep away the cold. The top COM
prises seventy acres of powders, upon which
the snow lies and upon which it falls at times
in midsummer A United States signal sta
ton is now located here.
The supplies for this station are taken I'D
on queer little donkeys, that are sure if they
are not fast Their bray is sort of gltlnt,
and miners call them the Rocky mountain
canaries.
The Garden of the Gods is ndescrbable.
1t is a great basin of rolling land of many
acres, almost completely shut in by walls of
terra Gotta rock, which rise like battlements
many feet i'll the air, and which in places are
entered by openings against which the blue
sky seems to stand as a curtain Going
through one of these gates, you come out of
the mountains and upon a wide Colorado
plain, where you can see for miles, and where
the cattle Craze and the horses stand cut upon
the hills of the horizon This Colorado air is
SO clear that you see farther than in other
states, and the eastern eye loses all confidence
in itself as measure Of distances. In the
interior of this garden the many acres of hill
and hollow are spotted with rock formations
so curious in shape as to give the idea that
some giant sculptor of the past has wrought
them into shape. They are like no formation
have ever seen, and they do not re-
sen1ble any of those of Europe, such
as the Saxon Switzerland, near Dresden.
Those are regular, and resemble tow
ers, castles, forts and bridges of NAM
moth size. These are of all shapes, and they
tend more to animals, vegetables and men
than to the shape of buildings. Here is
gigantic brick red mushroom, with head as
big as the top of the famous wine tun at
Heidelberg, and with u stem larger around
than the biggest of oak trees. 1t is a perfect
mushroom in shape and color, and looks ripe
enough to pick. Then there is the wonderful
Balance Rock, seated OH hill, the base Of
which is not larger than three feet in diane
ter. 1t is as big as two story house, and its
weight is equal to $50 men of 200 pounds
each. 1t weighs 125 tons, and it looks as
1hough child might push it over. Still it
las been balanced here for centuries and if
dynamite does not destroy it with its icono-
elastic hand it will probably last for centuries
to come. Over there on another hill you see
a mammoth representation of Punch and
Judy. and the Kissing Bears is rock forma-
tion which. with little stretch of the imagi-
nation, looks like caricature of the balcony
scene in aRomeo and Juliet" in that a
terra Gotta bear, weighing a ton or SO,
is reaching up its lips to another
bear like image on platform above. The
lips of the two touch and the blue sky shines
through the hole between their mouths and
breasts. Another formation is that of an ele-
phant. another that of a buffalo's head, one
that of lion, and many are of the human |
face. Among the larger rocks, and these are
gigantic in their proportions, are the Cathe-
dral Spires, the Tower OF Babel, Melrose |
Abbey and others. At the gateway there is |
giant rock called the Sentinel, and around
and above tower the great Rocky mountains,
oisu ikt's peak lOEuEiiS ~ Ofc1 dA. 0ueA |
You consider that these curious formations |
are numbered by thousands, and that the Car
den Of the Gods is big enough to form the site
of great city, you may get some little idea Of
its extent. Its grandeur you can only see with
your own eyes, and pen and ink cannot paint
its wonders 49,
On your way hack to Manitou you ride
through Colorado City, ascattering settlement
IF
country, is now afflicted with q real estaGe
boom. just outside of the Garden of the
Gods noticed city blocked out and lots
for sale, though there was but one house and
store as signs of habita:ion.
&%#
Just above Colorado Springs, at Palmer
Lake. Is the Chautauqua Of the Rocky noun
tains It is now holding its first assembly,
aud Dr. Vincent is at present presiding. J.